Take Control of Your Data in the Information Superhighway

“On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone.” Sadly, we still have not escaped the weary giants mentioned in the 1996 Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, which is why I love that this month is the EFF’s 2nd Opt Out October. October is a good month as any to take back control of your data and devices. It is a good month to remember that we still do need to opt out, because “privacy by design” and “privacy by default” are sadly still not the default. And it is perhaps also a good month to get mad that opting out is still necessary and (still) not easy. For example, how many of us know how to opt out of Meta using our data to train its AI? There is no apparent toggle switch — one needs to navigate the belly of the beast to figure out how to send an objection. Indeed, whenever I try to stay on top of my privacy settings, I think about the important ToS;DR (https://tosdr.org/en/) project that started in 2012. The weary giants are simply counting on wearing us down. So take a moment, inform yourself and push back.

Privacy should be the default but right now it's important for everyone to work with the little bit of controls we have so join in on Opt Out October with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)! 👏

Artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life, but as retailers began rolling it out, misinformation spread, and consumers grew concerned about their privacy. Click the link below to read more from Courtney Wolfe about what is being done, featuring insights from Cory Lowe, PhD, Matt Kelley, MBA, Tom Meehan, CFI, Paul Jones, Jake Parker, Michael Lamb, Mike Shore, and Ron Hawkins.

It had every trust signal an extension policy might rely on: Featured, Established Publisher, 4.8 stars, 2M+ users. Yet Bay Area Labs researchers found Poper Blocker collecting browsing data and AI chat histories. The issue is bigger than one extension. Reputation can help decide what gets installed, but it does not show what an extension does later inside live work sessions. Red Access discovers installed extensions, evaluates their risk, monitors extension updates, and inspects extension traffic so sensitive data sent through extensions can be identified and blocked. More on Browser Extension Security: https://lnkd.in/eeu8W2cw/?utm_campaign=EM2026&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid&utm_id=1154922254&hsa_acc=515166053&hsa_cam=1154922254&hsa_grp=831717244&hsa_ad=1605269714&hsa_net=linkedin&hsa_ver=3

Imagine understanding each customer beyond the purchases, clicks, and visits you see in your own business. Now imagine doing it while their identity stays protected, their consent stays in their hands, and your data stays yours. That is what we’re building at Sovern Morph. An AI-powered shared intelligence layer that brings together consented signals across businesses to build a living model of each individual and predict what moves them. Privacy is how the infrastructure is designed: protected identities, answers limited to your own consented customers, and no raw data shared with competitors. In this video, we take you inside that design. From how companies recognize the same person without exposing their identity, to how withdrawing consent reaches the whole network. Know the least, hold the least, reveal the least, and prove it. https://sovernmorph.com https://lnkd.in/gwkUm2e9

Before you walk the floor at #EdTech Week, ask yourself one question: 𝘪𝘧 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥? 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿, 𝘄𝗲’𝘃𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗱𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸. The 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗹 shows districts, and increasingly parents, that your platform's data practices, AI included, have been checked against a rigorous, nationally recognized standard, not just written down and hoped for. 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗱𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸: https://hubs.li/Q04yMqp80

How All me is Building a Privacy-by-Default Future In an era dominated by algorithmic manipulation, data harvesting and massive data breaches, social media can feel less like a community and more like a surveillance trap. Mainstream networks operate on an "opt-out" system: they take your data by default, and force you to navigate labyrinthine settings to claw your privacy back. The development team behind All me is flipping this script. By combining rigid Swiss privacy laws with architectural "Defence by Design" All me is building a social ecosystem where privacy isn't a premium feature or a toggle, it is the bedrock. Here is how the project is moving away from traditional Big Tech paradigms to put users back in control. Defence by Design: Shifting the Paradigm Traditional social networks are built as giant "honeypots." They want your email, your phone https://lnkd.in/e7hSkXWh #algorithmicmanipulation #Allme #databreaches #dataharvesting #DefencebyDesign #KarlALSmith #PrivacybyDefault #socialmedia

New polling: Europeans want privacy and security to guide Digital Markets Act interoperability. Freshwater Strategy surveyed 8,042 adults across 12 European countries. 75% preferred protecting their devices and personal information, even if that limits some AI assistants’ access. Majorities in every country surveyed shared that preference. And 65% want the European Commission to prioritize consumers’ security and safety, even if that means less choice of AI assistant. Competition policy should make technology work better for consumers. That includes protecting their privacy. Read the full findings: https://lnkd.in/eUvWks36

It’s Q4 o’clock, which means more creative, more campaigns, and more moments to get right. The holiday season isn’t one big moment anymore. From early discovery in October to Cyber Five urgency and December delivery deadlines, every stage calls for a different message. AI Digital's Q4 Holiday Season 2026 report breaks down how advertisers can adapt their creative to match the moment, including... • What consumers want to hear at each stage of the season. • Why one holiday creative is no longer enough. • How brands can refresh messaging without losing consistency. • Where AI can help advertisers move faster and create more moments. Every Q4 moment needs a different message. See how to plan for them all. Get the report here: https://lnkd.in/ebtai7J6

The last post in the Bright Line series takes the architecture built for critical infrastructure and points it at the infrastructure the rest exists to serve. The surveillance-to-influence pipeline has four stages. Commercially available data is aggregated. A system synthesizes it into an individual behavioral model. It generates content for that individual. It delivers that content at the moment and through the channel the model predicts will work. Every stage is operational today. What is new is closing the loop without a human reviewing any individual action. Three differences separate this from micro-targeted advertising: a persuasion strategy per person rather than per segment, synthesized content rather than tested variants, and autonomy rather than human approval at each stage. The argument in the post: 1. Draw the line on the consequence of the action, not on the technology. A hand-built statistical model doing the same thing autonomously at scale belongs above it. A generative system that acts on no one does not. 2. It is a surveillance line as well as an influence line. Profiling that carries consequences for a person's liberty belongs above it even if no message is ever sent. 3. Above the line, a named human authorizes, the delivery path physically passes through that authority, and the decision is recorded. The post also names the part that isn't resolved. The threat is new because it operates at a scale no person can review action by action, and the safeguard is a person who authorizes. That tension is where the definitional work is now, and I'd rather say so than publish an answer that doesn't hold. The full piece: https://lnkd.in/g9mJWMb4 For those working on AI assurance in any domain: when the actions a human must authorize arrive by the million, what is the unit that human actually authorizes? #AIGovernance #Democracy #ElectionSecurity #CriticalInfrastructure #CivilLiberties #ResponsibleAI Andrew Bochman Nikola Dalcekovic Dr. Michael L. Cohen